Another Day
by repr0b8
Summary: A day in the life of Sharon Agathon.


**Another Day**  
**Author:** repr0b8  
**Characters:** Sharon, Sharon/Helo, Kara  
**Word Count:** 4,300  
**Rating:** PG-13  
**Spoilers:** Through 3.15, _A Day in the Life_  
**Summary:** A day in the life of Sharon Agathon.  
**A/N:** Unbeta'd, a couple scenes inspired by _The Woman King_ that found a home in _A Day in the Life_

**Another Day**

_You think that's who I am? Who I've become?_

Her eyes followed the motion of her daughter's chest, watching it rise and fall with each sleeping breath. Leaning over, she reached down to tuck the edge of the worn burgundy blanket beneath her little girl. Returning her hands to the beaten metal rail of the old crib, she stared down at the uneven layers of grey paint that covered it. 

_That's my defining characteristic?_

She could hear Helo sleeping across the room, the steady rhythm of his breathing barely audible over the hum of the air handlers. A set of footsteps echoed outside their front door, growing and then subsiding as the owner passed by their home without pause. Above their daughter's crib, the mobile Helo had made spun slowly, the tiny models of raptors and vipers taking turns in the solitary overhead light before returning to the shadows.

_The guy who's married to a Cylon?_

She felt her cold brass dog tags resting against her skin, aware of them as she always was. On a chair near the table, her flight suit was folded carefully, ready for the morning CAP that was now only a few hours away. Her raptor sat on the deck, waiting for the pilot whose name was stenciled beneath its cockpit in yellow block letters; Lt. Sharon Agathon.

Kneeling beside the crib, she rested one hand on the railing, and with the other reached out take the raptor in her hand. The tiny vipers bounced on their strings as she pulled the raptor closer, turning it over in her hand and studying it absently.

In the silence, Hera's eyes blinked once, then twice, and then fell upon her mother, calm yet alert.

"Did I wake you, Hera?" Sharon whispered, releasing the raptor and smiling down on her daughter. "I'm sorry."

Hera offered no reply as her eyes moved to the swinging ships above her, watching as they settled back into their usual places and pattern of movement. Turning her eyes back to her mother, she reached up as Sharon reached down to lift her from the crib.

Resting her child on her hip, she made her way across the room slowly, stopping beside her locker and opening it. Inside, her dress blues were hung carefully, the rank insignia on the collar catching the light as she ran her hand along the fabric. Hera joined her mother, and reached out to take the cloth in her fist, balling it up before Sharon could free the uniform from her child's curious grip.

"Sharon?" his voice called out quietly. 

"I'm here," she said, making her way back towards the bed she had left nearly an hour before.

She sat down beside him on the bed with Hera clinging tightly to her. Helo struggled for a moment to keep his eyes open before yielding once more to the sleep she knew he desperately needed. Placing Hera on the inside of the bed, she crawled over the two and watched them, waiting for the morning to come.

-----

"If I never see another frakking toaster again it'll be too soon."

Sharon lifted a spoonful of the protein rich processed algae to her mouth and choked it down. If it was possible, the stuff tasted even worse than usual this morning, though by the mood of the pilots filling the mess room, nobody would have been able to tell.

"Too soon by half," Racetrack chimed in as she dropped her spoon into her empty bowl.

Sitting beside Sharon, Kara shook her head and smiled. "You guys seriously need to just shut up. It's been like…what? A month? The toasters haven't-"

"Fifty-one days," Racetrack corrected her.

"No," Skulls said. "Fifty-two."

"Whatever," Kara replied, her brow furrowing as the other pilots continued. "My point is that-" 

"Sharon," Racetrack said, cutting Kara off once again. "How many days has it been?"

_Forty-nine._

Sharon's spoon didn't stop as it made its way to her lips once more, despite the eyes of the rest of the pilots shifting to her. There was an art to the way she delayed her answers, a way of mimicking the appearance of human thought while recalling a fact. It wasn't quite hesitation, nothing that would give them reason to doubt the accuracy of her answer; just the smallest of pauses. 

"Forty-nine," she said through a mouthful of algae gruel, keeping a look of disinterest as she scraped the inside of her bowl with her spoon.

"Forty-nine days," Dragon repeated from the next table over. In her peripheral vision she could see him shaking his slowly. "Makes you wonder if we'll ever see them again."

She kept her eyes on the bottom of the bowl, collecting the last of her morning meal on her spoon and shoveling it into her mouth. Hopefully the afternoon meal would come from a better tasting batch of the stuff.

"Not that it means any less work for us," Racetrack said as she looked over at her ECO. "We'll be playing chauffeur to the president from now till we're skids down on Earth."

"Yeah, no joke," Skulls smirked. "You'd think she'd get tired of talking to that skinjob."

A muscle at the back of Sharon's jaw tensed for a fraction of a second before she caught it and forced it to relax.

"Not this skinjob," Narcho commented from behind Sharon. "I hear this is the one that Baltar himself was frakking back on New Caprica." 

"Yeah, right," Racetrack replied, rolling her eyes. "And how the frak would anyone know one from another?"

"It's true," the ace of the destroyed Pegasus insisted. "Isn't it?" 

Part question, part challenge, she didn't turn to look at the man who had never user her name or call sign when speaking to her. But for the second time in less than a minute the eyes of the room fell upon her, and the topic was still one she had no desire to discuss.

"I don't know," she said. "They asked me to talk to her to for intelligence, not for details on her love life." 

Racetrack tilted her head and leaned in, a small smile turning at the corner of her lips. "Yeah, but you must know if-" 

"You done, Sharon?" Kara asked, pushing her chair out and standing up. Sharon looked up at her, realizing her friend's gaze had been on her the entire conversation, and found the unspoken intent in the woman's seemingly expressionless brown eyes. "We're gonna be late."

"Yeah," Sharon replied with a nod, then turning back to Racetrack and smiling. "Sorry Maggie, you'll have to get your gossip somewhere else."

Lifting her bowl off the table, she followed the blonde viper pilot to the back of the mess room and set her empty dish beside the others waiting to be cleaned. She shrugged her shoulders to pull her loose-fitting slight suit tighter as she stepped away, listening to the pilot's conversation continue on without her. But neither she nor Kara spoke as they walked out of the room and headed towards the flight briefing, and Sharon was glad for it.

They walked beside each other down the hallway, talking about the boredom of CAP and the fresh batch of nuggets. It surprised Sharon sometimes had how easy things were with Kara now. Even easier then when she herself had been a nugget, taken under the wing of the hotshot viper pilot a lifetime ago.

"I swear, Sharon," Kara said, her thumbs hooked over her belt as they made the last turn into the briefing room. "After a few hours of flying with this rook, you'll be begging the CAG to get Helo back as your ECO. Trust me."

"That bad, huh?" Sharon asked.

Kara's only reply was a sideways glance and a small lifting of her eyebrows. It was enough to bring a smile to Sharon's lips.

Spotting Helo talking with another pilot at the front of the briefing room, Sharon stayed at the back and took a seat on the stairs leading up to the last row of seats. Unexpectedly, Kara stopped as well, resting her arm on the railing beside Sharon and glancing around the slowly filling room. Lifting a foot onto the stairs, Kara said nothing as she made herself comfortable.

----- 

When they called her off CAP, her first thought was of Hera. When Lee Adama met her on the deck, she knew it had nothing to do with her family. And when he told her why she had been called back, she couldn't help but feel proud; Lee Adama wanted nothing to do with Sharon Agathon, but right now, the CAG needed her.

"We're not gonna have much time," he said, circling to the side of her raptor. "How long is it going to take to get that hatch closed?" 

"Seven seconds," she answered.

"Let's test it," he replied, looking down at his watch.

As the others watched the hatch close shut, she glanced over at the CAG. The rank on his collar was well deserved she thought, even if the feeling wasn't mutual. That he had picked her to fly the rescue mission highlighted his quality as an officer; there was an objective to be reached, and he had picked the best resources available to achieve it. He would just as soon put her back in her cage as speak to her, but that wouldn't interfere with him getting the job done.

He was a soldier, and the best soldiers never let emotions effect their decisions, never questioned orders, and never acted out of fear; the best soldiers were machines.

The irony wasn't lost on Sharon.

But like a selecting highly tuned viper, or precisely scoped rifle, Lee could call on her without threatening his view of the universe. It didn't matter to her though; an opportunity was an opportunity, no matter how it presented itself.

"Alright, this might be a stupid question, but has anyone tried a rescue like this before?"

"No one's ever been crazy enough," Kara answered.

"It doesn't matter," Lee said, turning back to Sharon. "Prep for launch, we've only got eighteen minutes left."

_Eighteen minutes._

In the back of her mind, a small voice told her that Galen Tyrol, a man whose love still occupied her memories, would be dead in eighteen minutes. But the thought was pushed easily from her mind as she turned back to her raptor.

"Alright, let's go," she called out to her ECO. "We're on."

-----

Kneeling over his prone body on the floor of the raptor, the feelings were there.

She wanted him to live. She wanted his wife to live, and for his son to know both his parents. She wanted to see his smile on the flight deck once more.

A small groan escaped his lips and she hushed him quietly, running a hand gently across his forehead, brushing his dark hair back. Leaning over, she whispered softly to him.

"Galen, it's gonna be-"

"Get your hands off of him."

The words came out in a single strained breath, barely passing between Cally's clenched teeth. Grimacing in pain as the bubbles of nitrogen flowed through her body, the specialist stared at Sharon through bloodshot eyes. Kara and Lee held onto the orange-clad woman, pressing hard on her shoulders and knees to try and relieve the building pressure.

Ignoring the words, Sharon took Galen's hand and squeezed as the hatch hissed open and the medical personnel waiting on the deck rushed onto the wing.

"Don't touch him," Cally spat again.

"Athena, get back," Lee said, passing Cally to one of the medics and moving towards Sharon, a firm forearm pushing her away from the chief. "I've got him."

She stood and took a step back as Lee lifted the chief off the ground with the help of a medic, a deckhand rushing into the cabin to assist. Through the chaos and shouting voices of the medics, she watched as they carried his body out of her ship and onto a waiting gurney. A moment later, both he and his wife were out of site, on their way to the infirmary.

Left alone in the cabin, she stared after the chief and the medical staff that had taken him away. Standing in the silence, her eyes drifted down to her hands, trembling from the emotions that were beginning to flood her body. One by one, she slipped her fingers from the gloves, trying to focus on the act, tying to ignore the anger until she no longer could. 

Ripping them off her hands, she flung the gloves towards the front of the ship with a growl

_Let them die._

"That was some nice flying," a voice came from the hatch. She turned to see Kara at the entrance, the blonde woman's gaze turning from the discarded gloves to Sharon. "Could have done without the ten-ton hatch hitting us, but still…not bad."

"It's a frakking raptor," Sharon replied quickly, staring daggers and letting the anger remain. "It's a frakking box with wings. Put me in a heavy raider and I'll show you what I can do."

Kara didn't reply, but leaned back out the hatch to examine the spot where the airlock door had hit the ship. While she did, Sharon took the moment to gather herself, trying to push away the rage and still her mind.

"Let's get a drink," Kara said, ducking slowly back into the ship.

Shaking her head, Sharon let out long, controlled breath. "Helo's waiting for me."

"He can wait then, can't he?"

Sharon gave a small, spiritless laugh, closing her eyes as thoughts of her family slowly replaced the emotions of moments before. And though she didn't know how to put it in words Kara would understand, while Helo could certainly wait, Sharon had no desire to.

-----

Walking down the corridor that lead to the living area of the ship, Sharon wasn't quite sure why Kara was still beside her. Boredom seemed the most likely answer. Or perhaps she simply wanted to pay Helo a visit. But at the edge of her consciousness she sensed there was something more, and today, she wanted nothing to do with it.

"Hey babe," she called out as she pushed open the hatch and stepped inside her family's quarters. Shrugging off her flight jacket, she let it hang around her waist.

"Hey," he answered back, sitting up from the couch and dropping a stack of paperwork onto the nightstand. Dressed in his blues, the jacket was unbuttoned down the middle, revealing his tanks underneath. His eyes shifted to Kara, as he made his way towards them. "What brings you around this way, Starbuck?" 

Sharon didn't wait for Kara's reply, wrapping her arms around Helo when he got close enough, and pulling him into a kiss. For a fraction of a second he resisted, the muscles in his neck tensing as an audience of one looked in on their end of day ritual. But she didn't let go, instead pulling him tighter until finally she felt him relax and give in.

Tasting his lips, she was aware of Kara's eyes on them. She would have preferred the room to be empty, to have this daily moment to themselves, but she wouldn't let anyone take this from her.

She felt the corners of his mouth lift into a smile and pull away, much too soon for her liking. Taking her hands in his, he didn't move far.

"I was listening to the wireless," he said to her, still smiling. "Sounded like some pretty good piloting out there, babe."

"She can fly circles around you, Karl, that's for sure," Kara said, stepping past the two of them and into their home. Sharon looked over to see Hera staring out from her crib, watching the blonde stranger with curiosity.

Turning to look over his shoulder at Kara, Helo released Sharon's hands and began to button his jacket. "Do the letters ECO mean anything to you, Starbuck?"

"Yeah, they do, but I won't hold them against you," Kara replied, dropping down onto the black couch. Oblivious to the banter, Sharon's eyes were on Helo's hands, watching as they slipped one button after another into place.

She tried her best to say it without sounding needy, or jealous. "Where are you going?" she asked, quietly enough that Kara wouldn't hear the disappointment in her voice.

He smiled reassuringly, running a hand over her shoulder. "I'll be back soon," he said, answering her next question before answering the first. "A couple of Geminons are refusing to transfer off the ship."

"Refusing to leave, huh?" she replied, forcing a smile for his sake. "That's a first."

"I'll be back soon," he whispered again, leaning in and kissing her forehead. Stepping towards the hatch, he looked back at Kara. "ECO. Electronics. Countermeasures. Officer. Got it?"

Kara waved him off as she kicked her legs up onto the footrest. "Save your excuses, Mayor Agathon. Go see to your people."

Sharon watched the hatch, not him, as it closed shut with a dull thud. Reaching over, she spun the lock and turned back to see Kara lifting a bottle of ambrosia off the shelf behind the nightstand.

"You mind?" Kara asked, not bothering to wait for a reply before reaching for one of the crystal tumblers that had accompanied the admiral's wedding gift.

"Help yourself," Sharon said, walking over to Hera's non-descript crib and lifting the two-year old into her arms. Smiling down at the little girl, she pressed her forehead to her daughter's cheek. "Mommy isn't going to get much chance to enjoy it, is she, Hera?" 

The clink of the bottle hitting the edge of the glass was followed by the sound of the liquor filling it. Swaying gently, Sharon watched her daughter's eyes as they moved curiously from one spot to another, but always returning to the stranger on the couch. The room fell into a comfortable silence as each woman focused on what they held in their hands, and with her daughter resting against Sharon's shoulder, the thoughts and worries of the day slipped away.

Closing her eyes, Sharon inhaled deeply, letting the smell of her daughter's hair and skin fill her mind. Hera's arms wrapped half way around her mother's chest, one tiny hand grabbing the front of her tanks while the other took hold of the back. The smile that came to Sharon's lips required no thought or effort; it simply was.

"So this is really it."

Kara held her glass up, closing one eye and peering through the amber liquid. Unsure of the other woman's words, Sharon studied Kara for a moment, trying to find the meaning, but came up empty.

"What do you mean?" Sharon asked.

"I mean…" Kara's eyes shifted off Sharon to Hera. "This is what it's all about. I had to see it to believe it."

"Kara, I don't-"

"I mean, after everything," Kara continued, setting her glass back in her lap and staring hard at Sharon. "The years in that cell… spending everyday trying to get people to forget what you are…turning on your own race…frak, the mountain of Cylon corpses you've left in your wake. And this…" Kara lifted her hands, motioning around her as she looked around the sparsely decorated room that was Sharon's home. Leaning over the nightstand, she lifted the picture of Helo off the shelf, and then looked back to Sharon. "This really is it, isn't it?"

-----

_You think that's who I am? That's who I've become?_

It had been well past midnight when Helo returned from Dogsville. She didn't know why she had pretended to sleep as he crawled into bed beside her, but minutes later he had found the sleep that eluded her. Now staring at the wall beside her, she ran her fingers across the pattern of deep grooves that traveled the length of it

_That's my defining characteristic?_

Counting the seconds between each of his breaths, she remembered the similar games she had played in her cell. Finding shapes and symbols in the rivets that covered the floor. Seeing how close she could get to timing the changing of her guards without watching the clock. Identifying visitors by the sound of their footsteps alone.

For nearly two years she had sat in that cell. And she knew she would do it again in a heartbeat if she had to.

_The guy who's married to a Cylon?_

The knowledge brought her no peace.

Pulling back the covers, she slid past Helo and out of the bed, heading for her locker. She tossed her dress blue onto the couch, along with a fresh set of tanks and her shoes.

"Sharon?"

"Go back to sleep, Karl," she said without looking at him, stripping off her black top and pulling the tanks over her head. Stepping into her slacks, she could see him rubbing his palms against his eyes as he tried wake up.

"What are you…" he started groggily, correcting himself as he realized Sharon was stepping into her uniform. "Where are you going? What time is it?"

"It's late," she replied, sitting on the couch and slipping her shoes on. "Go back to sleep."

"Sharon-"

"I'm going to visit, Six," she said, cutting him off as she pulled the laces tight and began to tie them.

"The prisoner?" he asked, confused.

_The prisoner._

For a moment she considered reminding him what this person had done for them, but knew there was no need. It was a kinder title than most would give the Cylon that now occupied Sharon's old cell. She doubted most had been so kind to her when she had lived inside it.

"Yeah, the prisoner."

"Now?" he asked, looking down at his watch. She could hear the hesitation in his voice, feel the uncertainty as he considered the thought of Sharon visiting another Cylon in the middle of the night. "I don't know if that's a good idea."

_This has nothing to do with you._

She wanted to tell him that, to return some of the words that had played over and over in her mind. But they would be false coming from her lips. There wasn't a moment in the past two years that had nothing to do with him. Every action, every decision, every word and every promise could be traced to one desire. There were other desires, other hopes and dreams, but all of them returned to the original, no matter how much she might wish otherwise.

Looking over at him, she met his eyes and spoke softly.

"What's my defining characteristic, Karl?"

His brow furrowed, the question catching him off guard. "What?"

"Tell me, Karl," she said, standing up and beginning to button her jacket. "What's my defining characteristic?"

He shook his head, squeezing his eyes shut. "Sharon, what are you-"

"Say it," she insisted quietly, taking a step towards the bed. "Tell me."

Letting out a long sigh, he dropped his head into his hands. "Sharon, look, the other night, I didn't mean-"

"Is it that I'm a Cylon?" she asked, sitting down beside him, knowing his response before he gave it.

"No," he answered too quickly, his head snapping out of his hands so he could look squarely into her eyes. "No, it's not."

She smiled for him, placing a hand on his back. "Then tell me, Karl, what is it?" 

Still looking at her, another small, nearly silent sigh came from him. He searched her eyes, and she could see how badly he wanted to find the right answer to her question. His expression saddened as he failed in his search, and it reminded her of one of the few things she had known from day one; her love was not misplaced.

"Is it that I'm married to a human?" she asked.

"Sharon…" he whispered, reaching out to run a gentle hand across her cheek. 

"Or is it simply that I love one?"

----- 

Following the corridor that led back to her family's quarters, her fingers roamed over the smooth edges of the stolen item in her pocket. Supple curves flowed into sharp points, every angle and arc designed for a single purpose. There was nothing like it in humanity.

Stepping quietly back into their quarters, she was glad to see Helo fast asleep in their bed. It had only been an hour since she left this room, and less than ten minutes since she had left Six and made her way to the CIC. Now, with only hours left before their shifts started, she wanted nothing more than to crawl back into bed beside her husband. But before she could, there was one thing left to be done.

The mobile of raptors and vipers hung motionless over Hera's crib. The air-handlers had cycled off, and the lack of current had taken away the miniature ships propulsion, leaving them stranded. Below, Hera slept quietly, wrapped in her burgundy blanket and oblivious to the world.

Reaching out, Sharon took one of the vipers in her long fingers, her closely trimmed nails working at the knot Helo had used to secure it to the mobile. Once free, she slipped the human ship from the string and placed it into her pocket, then pulled the replacement stolen from the CIC out.

Long and sleek, the tiny Cylon raider offered no convenient point for the string to tie to. Wrapping it around the ship several times, it hung awkwardly off the mobile when she released it from her grip. Smiling to herself, she would ask Helo to attach the Cylon fighter properly when he woke.

As she stared at the mobile, then down to her daughter sleeping beneath it, the air-handlers kicked in, and the barely perceptible flow of air set the mobile to spinning slowly once more.

--- End --- 


End file.
